Week+9

=Using the criteria of Transparency and Functionality in slides 8 and 9, do a media analysis of two major information sources (i.e. About.com, Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, MSN.ca etc).=

I chose to do a media analysis of Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers using the criteria of transparency and functionality in slides 8 and 9. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that allows anyone to create and edit pages of information. The search engine is useful because it can quickly provide you a page that is related to your search in the language you choose from the drop down menu beside the search engine. Wikipedia seems to be updated constantly. Information about updates is provided at the bottom of a page in Wikipedia. All pages on Wikipedia have links to related sites. The linking structure of wikipedia makes it easier to navigate it. There are no pop up ads or other types of ads. Wikipedia is mostly functional, but because it allows anyone to edit pages grammatical and spelling errors can be made.In terms of transparency, the pages in Wikipedia include and link to sources that support the information they hold.

Yahoo Answers is a site that allows members to ask and answer questions. Members can get rewarded with points if their answers get voted as best answers, if they vote for answers and if they answer questions. There is Yahoo Answers for different countries. The basic search engine does not always provide you information related to your search, but the advanced search engine makes your search easier. The Yahoo Answers search engines do not always provide information related to my search. Yahoo Answers shows when a question is asked and when members post answers. All the links on Yahoo Answers work. Yahoo Answers includes ads which shows that it is less functional than Wikipedia. Yahoo Answers may contain grammatical and spelling errors because people can make such errors. In terms of transparency, yahoo answers gives people who answer questions an option to provide the source(s) they got the information. Since this is an option, people can chose not to provide the source(s) which leads to a problem in transparency.

In conclusion, both Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers are user-generated and can be updated by anyone. Regular people are the people that are providing information in both Wikipedia, and Yahoo Answers. People can make grammatical and spelling errors which means both information sources can include grammatical and spelling errors. Both Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers have a privacy policy and terms of use. This shows that both Wikipedia and yahoo answers have good transparency.